We are still without water here on Howling Hill. Wolf and I are coping relatively well. We were talking about which of our friends/family/co-workers would be able to cope and believe me when I say the list was short, and mostly contained men.

The thing we both find the most annoying is having to do dishes. There’s no more letting the water run or filling up the sink. Instead we put a small amount of water into a pot, heat it up to warmish, add some soap then wash the dishes. Rinsing the soap requires a bottle of water to be poured slowly over the dish. It’s time consuming and tedious. Dishes have never been my favorite chore. The lack of running water is making it even more of a PITA.

The difficulty in doing dishes is certainly affecting the way we eat. Neither of us wants to make any dishes. We’re both resisting the urge to buy disposable plates and utensils but it’s getting more and more difficult to resist. Wolf said he’d take a run by Target to see if he can get biodegradeable plates and utensils. Are they worth the money?

The dishes bring up another good point. Since we’re using bottled water (purchased at Hannaford), we don’t want to be using “good” water to do the dishes. I feel this is incredibly wasteful. I was going to head to the fire station to fill up some jugs but I decided instead to go up to Bristol to get some at a natural fountain up there.

This brings up another point. Because we’re using bottled water, we’re having to use the car more to get the water either at the store or at the natural fountain. The store is 10 miles in one direction and the fountain is 10 miles in the opposite direction. Using gas to get water isn’t very good to the environment. Not only that, now we have a lot more plastic here at the house. We’re using the bottles but still, we have at least 12 plastic jug containers.